Rat study sug­gests Al­ler­gan's failed an­ti­de­pres­sant ra­pastinel may work as opi­oid ad­dic­tion treat­ment

Last month, when Al­ler­gan’s $AGN once-tout­ed pipeline star ra­pastinel crashed and burned a slate of piv­otal de­pres­sion stud­ies, it looked like the ex­per­i­men­tal mod­u­la­tor of the NM­DA re­cep­tor would be shroud­ed in a cloak of in­vis­i­bil­i­ty — but re­searchers may have found a way to res­cue the ex­per­i­men­tal drug by re­pur­pos­ing it as a treat­ment for opi­oid de­pen­dence.

In the Unit­ed States, the cri­sis of opi­oid abuse, mis­use and over­dose — from pre­scrip­tion painkillers, hero­in, and syn­thet­ic opi­oids such as fen­tanyl — has reached epi­dem­ic pro­por­tions, caus­ing 130 deaths every day, ac­cord­ing to NIH es­ti­mates. Once in with­draw­al, ad­dicts are left to cope with a myr­i­ad of symp­toms in­clud­ing anx­i­ety, ag­i­ta­tion, sleep prob­lems, mus­cle aches, run­ny nose, sweat­ing, nau­sea, vom­it­ing, di­ar­rhea and opi­oid crav­ings.

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